My Genealogy Hound

ROBERTS, ISHAM, farmer and stock raiser, P.O. White Hall. Mr. Roberts was born in Greene County in 1841. His parents were Lewis and Rebecca Roberts. Of Lewis Roberts it may be said that he was a native of North Carolina, born in 1797. In early youth he became a resident of Kentucky, where he was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca Day. In 1820 he set out from Kentucky to Illinois in a covered wagon. Then, in his twenty-second year, he was possessed of great powers of endurance. He first worked by day’s labor, receiving therefor the sum of twenty-five cents per day. Saving what he could from his small earnings he entered land from the government, afterwards making a purchase of the farm property of Charles Kitchen. This old pioneer and Mr. Roberts made the first improvement, it is said, in township 12, range 12. He became a well to do farmer, acquiring a property of some 600 acres. Isham received his preliminary education in a log cabin, which afterwards gave place to a small frame dwelling. December 11, 1860 he was united in marriage to Miss Artimesia Baird, a daughter of Zebulon Baird, of Scott County. There were born of this marriage seven children, five now living: Lucy J., Marietta, Margaret E., Norman J., Louisa G. and infant child. Mr. Roberts is the owner of 138 acres of valuable land. In 1868 he was ordained a Baptist minister, and now takes charge of the following churches: Richmond, and Pleasant Dale in Greene, and Glasgow and Mauvaisterre in Scott County.